There are many websites where users regularly visit either to access information that periodically changes (e.g., newspapers, journals, TV Channels, etc.) or to plan their week-ends, vacations (e.g., tourist information, leisure information, etc.), or to collect their e-mails (e-mail portals), or to buy books, clothing, movies or other consumer products. These types of sites are designed with the knowledge that multiple types of users will visit their sites. Generally, the navigation structure of the website is designed based on this knowledge. Further, websites are designed with the presumption that a user navigates by himself/herself. Most of the times such websites have an enormous amount of information. Often users get lost while navigating, get distracted to various other links, or spend far more time than anticipated or needed. In the end, the user may feel exhausted and decide to either not visit the site again, or plan to visit the site only when he or she has sufficient time to spare. This may result in the decrease of user visits.
Additionally, advertisements on websites are typically placed on the website based on presumption that persons with specific interest would visit that website the most. That is, the advertisements are geared toward a narrow subset of all visitors, albeit the presumed most likely visitor. Furthermore, the advertisements of the website may also become irritating to those persons who do not share the specific interest.
To address these problems, websites (e.g., News Paper/TV Channel sites) that attract regular visitors advises users to provide information for a “user profile”. The user profile typically includes both personal information about the user and personal preferences data. The personal information may include such information as the user's name, address, and telephone number. The preference data may vary with the type of website. For example, the web page of an electronic bookstore may keep data about the user's favorite author and/or favorite genre. The user profile may be stored in a database on the website's server or in a cookie residing on the user's computer. The user profile helps the website to present itself as more user-friendly to the visiting users by orienting itself according to the visitor's user profile.
The concept of user profiles, however, is not meaningful for the navigation of those sites that have occasional visitors. In particular, user profiles are not helpful for websites that have large information content and which typically attracts occasional visitors with specific needs/intentions. These websites may be visited only once by users seeking specific information or may not be visited again for a very long time when a new need for information arises.